1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to tools used in food preparation. More particularly, it relates to a pastry cutter that facilitates preparation of food items made from puff pastry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Puff pastry is a butter and flour mixture commonly used in making various pastry dishes. It is difficult to work with, because it is brittle and easily breakable when cold and overly pliable and sticky at room temperature. In most cases, it is formed into a flat layer of dough about a quarter inch thick on a preparation table, and a common cutter, like a cookie cutter, is used to cut out individual sections for further manipulation by a chef or other food preparer. The initial cut, which segregates each piece of dough from all other pieces, is not particularly difficult to make because it is carried out before the dough reaches room temperature. However, it is time-consuming because it must be performed manually. The subsequent steps required to prepare the pastry for folding are more difficult due to the sticky nature of the butter/flour mixture at room temperature. The chef or other food preparer has to make several internal cuts in the dough, at certain locations mandated by the type of pastry to be made, and must then fold the dough by lifting an internal part thereof and repositioning it prior to insertion of the food item into an oven. If a large number of pastries are to be prepared, which is almost always the case in the context of a commercial food preparation operation, the dough becomes so warm and is so difficult to work with that many of the pastries have to be discarded because the preparation work becomes increasingly difficult and sloppier as the food preparers become tired.
None of the pastry or cookie cutters heretofore known are capable of assisting the food preparer in making the internal cuts. Those cutters having internal blades invariably make continuous cuts, thereby separating the dough into distinct pieces that are unconnected to one another. None of the known cutters make discontinuous internal cuts of the type needed when working with puff pastry.
What is needed, then, is a puff pastry cutter that makes the external cuts required to separate individual pieces of puff pastry from a larger piece, and that simultaneously makes discontinuous internal cuts to facilitate hand folding of the pastry prior to baking.
There is also a need for a puff pastry cutter for cutting out an opening having a preselected geometrical configuration in the upper layer of a pastry having two layers of dough where a top layer overlies a bottom layer.
However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how the needed puff pastry cutters could be provided.